1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system which enables the amount of damage, in terms of repair costs, to be quickly and easily generated particularly in environments which do not lend themselves to manually executed paper work.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hithertofore, in the event that a damaged vehicle has been brought to a garage or panel beaters or, alternatively, a representative of such an establishment has gone to the site of a vehicle accident, it is often the case that an estimate of the damage in terms of repair costs must be provided in short order. For the purposes of providing such estimates it has been a common practice to refer to a predetermined schedule such as a wall chart of the nature shown in FIG. 3. However, as will be appreciated from this figure, the schedule is quite complex and arranged in terms of required work time (man hours) and damaged panel surface area. The effect of the extent of damage on the degree of panel beating required (viz., work to effect repair) are charted in terms of 8 levels of difficulty. Further, the time required to execute the repainting and the amount of paint (metallic or solid) involved and the cost of the same are respectively charted, as shown.
In order to use this type of schedule it is firstly necessary to inspect the damage and approximate the deformed area of the damaged section(s) and the degree of panel beating difficulty involved in the repair. Using these values, the vertical lines are followed from the base of the schedule, upwardly from the approximated area value until the appropriate line of difficulty is encountered. By reading across the schedule to the left, the amount of panel beating or repair time for the given approximations can be ascertained.
Following this, the amount of time required to repaint the section is calculated by determining the type of paint work involved (e.g. metallic or solid finish) and finding the intersection of the appropriate trace with the line of difficulty selected previously. By reading across to the left this value may ascertained.
The two time periods are summed and multiplied by the current labor rate in order to derive the labor cost.
Next, the cost of the paint is determined by using the traces provided at the upper section of the schedule and reading across to the right.
The two costs are then summed in order to derive the cost estimate for that section.
However, as will be appreciated, quite a few operations are required and it is difficult to execute rapidly without fear of error. Further, in the case that several sections of the vehicle are damaged (e.g. some badly deformed while others only slightly so) it is necessary to repeat the above procedure several times.
Further, due to the complexity of the schedule, in order to permit an operator to read off the values without excessive difficulty, the schedule cannot be printed on anything less than an A4 size sheet of paper. If the sheet on which the schedule is printed is large such as for wall chart use, the procedure of deriving accurate estimates during on the spot operations or moving in and around a vehicle in the confines of a cramped garage or paint shop wherein soiling and or damaging of such a chart is very easy, is increased undesirably, as the chart is invariably mounted on a wall located some distance from the vehicle under inspection and there is a need to frequently consult therewith.